President Peter Mutharika has asked donors for direct budgetary support saying the world has no excuse for not giving Malawi the support.
Speaking when he met World Bank Country Representative Bella Bird at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on Wednesday, Mutharika said his government has taken Malawi out of an economic crisis, achieved macro-economic stability and inspired economic growth without donor budgetary support.
He, however, added that more progress would have been achieved if there was direct budgetary support.
“Imagine if we had direct budgetary support! And the world has no single excuse for not giving Malawi budgetary support,” Mutharika said.
Donors withdrew budgetary in 2013 after billions in public funds were stolen by individuals. Many donors still channel aid through off-budget support but government has in the past argued that such support is not sustainable.
During the meeting with Bird yesterday, the Malawi leader, who is in his second term, said his government’s goal is to turn Malawi from an importing and consuming nation to a producing and exporting country.
According to Mutharika, Malawi’s strategy is to focus on priority areas that include agriculture and agro-processing; education and skills development; energy, industry, mining and tourism development; transport and ICT infrastructure; and health and population.
“Within agriculture, we are focusing on irrigation, agriculture commercialization and agro-processing using rural industrialization strategy.
“We want to produce more goods and create more jobs in rural industrialization. And we want to develop industrial parks as part of this strategy,” he said.
